Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 23, 2023. - Copyright AP Phot

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin files for divorce

By David Mac Dougall

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 23, 2023. – Copyright AP Phot

Marin became prime minister at the end of 2019, and married her teenage sweetheart Markus Räikkönen in summer 2020.

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has announced that she and her husband, Markus Räikkönen, are filing for divorce.

The pair posted the news, separately, on their Instagram accounts on Wednesday afternoon.

“We have filed for divorce together. We are grateful for 19 years together and for our beloved daughter,” the PM wrote on Wednesday afternoon.

The couple say they remain the best of friends, and will “continue to spend time together as a family and with each other.”

Marin and Räikkönen were married in August 2020, and have a 5-year-old daughter together. The wedding, at the PM’s official residence in Helsinki, came as a surprise during a COVID lockdown respite in Finland.

However her private life hit the headlines in last summer 2022 when video of Marin dancing closely with a Finnish musician went viral. At one point he appears to lean down and kiss her neck, but Marin dismissed the incident, saying that she had done nothing inappropriate.

Marin was officially cleared of any wrongdoing in an investigation, following a number of complaints about her behaviour, and after taking a drugs test which came back negative.

Finland’s Chancellor of Justice said in November that he had “no reason to suspect the prime minister of illegal conduct in the minister’s official position or neglect of duty.”

Marin’s political future unclear

Despite gaining more votes and picking up three extra seats in April’s general election, Marin’s Social Democrats came third in the poll behind two right-wing parties.

Soon after she announced that she would no longer continue as party chairperson, and will step down from the role in September.

Marin has indicated that, in the short term at least, she will continue as a backbench MP.

She currently leads a caretaker government, while negotiations to form a new administration are held between four other parties.

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